How Victoria’s three-city Commonwealth Games plan ran out of control

“It has to be a lesson for future years and future governments that you can’t commit the state to big projects like this without proper due diligence and costings and stakeholder engagement.”

The government denies that election politics skewed its planning for the Games. A government spokesperson said the Games were always intended to reach beyond the three regional centres.

“The bid we submitted for the Commonwealth Games included hosting events in Gippsland and Shepparton,” the spokesperson said. “The intent of the bid was to share the benefits – both of the Games themselves and the legacy outcomes – across as much of regional Victoria as possible.”

Two documents obtained by The Sunday Age reveal the comparatively simple, original design for the Games and how over 18 months the addition of more host cities, sports and unbuilt venues redrew the Victoria 2026 blueprint.

The government’s starting vision for the Games is set out in a presentation that Visit Victoria, the state’s major events and tourism company, pitched to the Commonwealth Games Federation in October and November 2021. The extent to which the government departed from this plan is shown by an internal Victoria 2026 venue masterplan updated just before the Games collapsed.

The Visit Victoria pitch, titled A Proposal to Host the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Australia, spruiks Victoria’s record in hosting international major events and its status as a “trusted partner for any event owner”.

In promising to deliver a “reimagined Commonwealth Games”, the document emphasises the proximity of Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo to Melbourne, rail links serving the three cities and previous government investment in local infrastructure.

Although the presentation notes that “a number of smaller cities may be added to the final mix, depending on the final list of sports”, Visit Victoria’s pitch was squarely focused on the three regional centres and makes no mention of hosting sports in Shepparton or Gippsland.

This is the plan the Commonwealth Games Federation endorsed when it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Victorian government on December 15 to enter into exclusive bid negotiations. It was based in part on advice provided by Craig McLatchey’s consultancy EKS. McLatchey, a former Australian Olympic Committee general manager and Sydney Olympic Games organiser, is the go-to adviser for Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

By April 2022, when CGF president Dame Louise Martin announced Victoria as host of the 2026 Games, the Andrews government had already expanded its ambitions for the event beyond the original Visit Victoria proposal, with Gippsland added as a fourth Games “hub”.

When asked why Morwell and Traralgon were given events, Phillips said the government wanted to offer something to communities affected by the closure of the coal mines, closing coal-fired power stations and the forestry industry. “The people in the Latrobe Valley were hurting from a number of decisions. To give these people something else they decided to drop sports into Gippsland.”

This view is shared by Martin Cameron, the National Party’s newly elected member for Morwell, a marginal seat targeted by Labor at last year’s state election.

“I saw it as the Commonwealth Games coming to regional Victoria, which sounded like a bloody great idea,” he said.

“As I have learnt more, I have come to the conclusion that it was just a play to try and win regional votes for the government.”

Phillips said that as the Games plans for Gippsland towns developed, the community benefit became less clear. A commitment to refurbish and upgrade a football stadium in Morwell into a 10,000-seat venue suitable for hosting A-League, NRL and Super Rugby matches ended as a plan that would have left just 2000 permanent seats after the Games. A plan to stage T20 cricket matches in the nearby town of Moe was abandoned shortly before the Games were dumped.

“They were brought into the mix for a political reason, but it would seem that other than housing, they would have gotten a very limited legacy,” Phillips said.

With a November state election looming, planning for the Games took on a dramatically altered shape from what had been decided during the bidding process. Different interests pushed for more sports to be included, with Commonwealth Games Australia backing track cycling, cycling’s international governing body lobbying for BMX and Andrews plumping for golf.

The venue plan underwent significant surgery, with shooting added to Morwell, beach volleyball shifting along Corio Bay from Geelong’s Eastern Beach to Rippleside Park, weightlifting moving out of an existing facility in Bendigo to a proposed building site in Waurn Ponds and swimming and diving shifting from Kardinia Park to a $110 million, temporary facility at Armstrong Creek, in the then marginal electorate of South Barwon.

Shepparton, the city that first floated the idea of a regional Games in 2017, was brought in to host BMX events at an existing facility. The change in venues for aquatics and beach volleyball and return of track cycling to the Games program in Bendigo all required additional, temporary facilities to be built at additional expense. Every new venue required construction of additional broadcast, media, athlete and VIP facilities.

The changes meant the Games lost an important feature of the original Visit Victoria design; clustered events within central Games precincts in each of the three major regional cities. This was most pronounced in Geelong, where events earmarked for Kardinia Park were dispersed to Waurn Ponds and Armstrong Creek.

Decisions about venues appear to have been taken after Victoria was announced as the host of 2026 but before the board and management of Victoria 2026 took control of Games planning.

Negotiations over the final bill from the abandoned Games are on hold after lawyers representing the Victorian government last week returned from London without securing an agreement. Talks are due to resume in two weeks time when Games officials return from staging the Commonwealth Youth Games on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago.

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